How to buy Westlake Chemical Corporation stock | $83.1

Westlake Chemical Corporation is a specialty chemicals business based in the US. Westlake Chemical Corporation shares (WLK) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Westlake Chemical Corporation employs 9,430 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$7.4 billion.

How to buy shares in Westlake Chemical Corporation

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Westlake Chemical Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: WLK. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Westlake Chemical Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$83.1, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Westlake Chemical Corporation, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Westlake Chemical Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

Westlake Chemical Corporation share price

Use our graph to track the performance of WLK stocks over time.

Westlake Chemical Corporation shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-12-01.

Latest market close	USD$83.1
52-week range	USD$28.5738 - USD$80.7823
50-day moving average	USD$72.2788
200-day moving average	USD$60.7231
Wall St. target price	USD$71.83
PE ratio	33.4
Dividend yield	USD$1.08 (1.4%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$2.25

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Is it a good time to buy Westlake Chemical Corporation stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Westlake Chemical Corporation by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Westlake Chemical Corporation price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $83.1 from 2020-12-09

1 week (2021-01-09)	N/A
1 month (2020-12-16)	N/A
3 months (2020-10-16)	N/A
6 months (2020-07-16)	N/A

1 year (2020-01-16)	N/A
2 years (2019-01-16)	N/A
3 years (2018-01-16)	N/A
5 years (2016-01-16)	N/A

Is Westlake Chemical Corporation under- or over-valued?

Valuing Westlake Chemical Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's P/E ratio

Westlake Chemical Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 33x. In other words, Westlake Chemical Corporation shares trade at around 33x recent earnings.

That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's PEG ratio

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.59. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Westlake Chemical Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's EBITDA

Westlake Chemical Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$1.1 billion.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Westlake Chemical Corporation financials

Revenue TTM	USD$7.4 billion
Operating margin TTM	5.31%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1.3 billion
Return on assets TTM	1.84%
Return on equity TTM	5.21%
Profit margin	3.89%
Book value	$46.578
Market capitalisation	USD$9.6 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Westlake Chemical Corporation shares

There are currently 1.5 million Westlake Chemical Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 26.6% down from 2.0 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Westlake Chemical Corporation shares can be evaluated.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Westlake Chemical Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 364469.90291262). Westlake Chemical Corporation's SIR currently stands at 4.12. In other words for every 100,000 Westlake Chemical Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 4120 shares are currently held short.

However Westlake Chemical Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable Westlake Chemical Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Westlake Chemical Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Westlake Chemical Corporation shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0444% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Westlake Chemical Corporation shares, roughly 44 shares are currently held short).

Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Westlake Chemical Corporation.

Find out more about how you can short Westlake Chemical Corporation stock.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Westlake Chemical Corporation.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 43.31

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Westlake Chemical Corporation's overall score of 43.31 (as at 01/01/2019) is pretty weak – landing it in it in the 80th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Westlake Chemical Corporation is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental score

Environmental score: 28.32/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's environmental score of 28.32 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's social score

Social score: 9.87/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's social score of 9.87 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's governance score

Governance score: 18.12/100

Westlake Chemical Corporation's governance score puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Westlake Chemical Corporation scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Westlake Chemical Corporation has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Westlake Chemical Corporation was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.

Total ESG score	43.31
Total ESG percentile	79.76
Environmental score	28.32
Environmental score percentile	9
Social score	9.87
Social score percentile	9
Governance score	18.12
Governance score percentile	9
Level of controversy	2

Westlake Chemical Corporation share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 60.17% of net profits

Recently Westlake Chemical Corporation has paid out, on average, around 60.17% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 1.4% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Westlake Chemical Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 1.4% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Westlake Chemical Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $1.08 per share.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.

Westlake Chemical Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 9 December 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 23 November 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares ever split?

Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 19 March 2014. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Westlake Chemical Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Westlake Chemical Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted Westlake Chemical Corporation's share price.

Westlake Chemical Corporation share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $28.5738 up to $80.7823. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Westlake Chemical Corporation's is 1.5479. This would suggest that Westlake Chemical Corporation's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Westlake Chemical Corporation overview

Westlake Chemical Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets basic chemicals, vinyls, polymers, and building products worldwide. It operates through two segments, Olefins and Vinyls. The Olefins segment offers polyethylene, styrene monomers, and various ethylene co-products, as well as sells propylene, crude butadiene, pyrolysis gasoline, and hydrogen products. The Vinyls segment provides specialty and commodity polyvinyl chloride (PVC), vinyl chloride monomers, ethylene dichloride, chlorine, caustic soda, chlorinated derivative, and ethylene products. This segment also manufactures and sells PVC compounds and building products fabricated from PVC, including residential siding, trim and moulding, pipe and fittings for various water, sewer and industrial applications, profiles for windows and doors, decking products, film for various inflatables, wall covering tapes, roofing applications, and composite roof tiles. Westlake Chemical Corporation offers its products to a range of customers, including chemical processors, plastics fabricators, small construction contractors, municipalities, and supply warehouses in various consumer and industrial markets, such as flexible and rigid packaging, automotive products, coatings, water treatment, refrigerants, and residential and commercial construction, as well as other durable and non-durable goods. The company was founded in 1986 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Westlake Chemical Corporation is a subsidiary of TTWF LP.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Westlake Chemical Corporation is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 73.254% of Westlake Chemical Corporation shares are held by insiders and 28.091% by institutions.

• How many people work for Westlake Chemical Corporation?

  Latest data suggests 9,430 work at Westlake Chemical Corporation.

• When does the fiscal year end for Westlake Chemical Corporation?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's fiscal year ends in December.

• Where is Westlake Chemical Corporation based?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's address is: 2801 Post Oak Boulevard, Houston, TX, United States, 77056

• What is Westlake Chemical Corporation's ISIN number?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's international securities identification number is: US9604131022

• What is Westlake Chemical Corporation's CUSIP number?

  Westlake Chemical Corporation's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 960413102